Why global access to female contraceptives is critical to Melinda Gates' philanthropy
'I've become determined to really look at equality in every type of society,' says philanthropist
Melinda Gates says billionaires have a duty to be philanthropic, and for her that means seeking empowerment for women and girls around the world.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-founder has spent years advocating for the safety and equality of women, from pushing for access to contraception in impoverished regions to speaking out against the male-dominated tech and computing industry.
"These are systemic issues. These are societal issues that have existed for a very long time and so there is no silver bullet," the former general manager of Microsoft told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.
"I've become determined to really look at equality in every type of society."
Gates writes about this philanthropic philosophy in her book The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, which she discussed with Tremonti. Here is part of their conversation.
You've met a lot of women who have challenged the way you think. And one of them is a woman named Meena. Can you tell us about her?
Meena lived in northern India and I met her and her husband just outside of her home. She'd recently delivered her second baby boy.
She'd had a fabulous birth; it had all gone well. But I was visiting her and at the very end of the discussion I asked her what her hopes and dreams were for this beautiful baby boy that she was holding in her arms, and her [firstborn] son who was standing next to her.
And she broke my heart.
After she looked down for a long time, she said: "The truth is, I have no hope for these two boys. None. And, in fact, would you take them home with you?"
And all she knew was that I was a Western woman there in a pair of khaki pants and a t-shirt learning about how to help with poverty and make people's lives better.
And that is just a heart-breaking thing, to know that because of poverty, a woman would ask a stranger to take her children home because she knew they would be better off.
The need for contraception is a recurring message that you have received when you meet women as you travel in these countries and look at the ways that your foundation can help them. How much did that surprise you?
It surprised me when it kept coming up over and over and over again, quite honestly.
And then I came back and started to look at the global statistics [of contraceptive access] and that's when I learned that, you know, as a world we're not delivering contraceptives to the over 200 million women that are asking us for them. And to me that is a crisis. And that just shouldn't be.
I believe that we should value life and keep moms and babies alive. And so why would we not allow access to a tool that is a lifesaving tool for women?- Melinda Gates, on global contraceptive access
It is our greatest anti-poverty tool we have on this earth and we know that no low-income country has ever made it to middle income without first allowing voluntary access to contraceptives.
And so to me it was actually abhorrent that we're not actually delivering those tools at scale for women.
I've met women who have walked 12 miles in the heat with two children to get to a clinic where they've learned that contraceptives are available. That's the length they will go to.
It's interesting because often the narrative coming out of North America, for those opposed to supplying women in developing countries with contraceptives, is that we're brainwashing them. But in fact they were asking you for them.
Absolutely. And so what I know to be true is that we have to educate women about their bodies and then allow them voluntary access to contraceptives.
But what I'm learning is that this is a cry for help. Women are asking us for this tool.
I believe that we should value life and keep moms and babies alive. And so why would we not allow access to a tool that is a lifesaving tool for women?
Women deserve to make decisions themselves about contraceptives and about their children's health and their own health.
Click 'listen' near the top of this page to hear the full conversation.
Q&A edited for length and clarity. Written by Émilie Quesnel. Produced by Idella Sturino.